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The Monster Ball Tour
The Monster Ball Tour '''is the second concert tour by Lady Gaga to promote The Fame Monster, her sophomore album. The tour was officially announced on October 15, 2009, after her joint concert tour with rapper Kanye West, titled "Fame Kills", was suddenly canceled. Described by Gaga as "the first-ever 'pop electro opera'", The Monster Ball Tour began four days after the release of '''The Fame Monster. Background Initially, hip-hop artist Kanye West and Lady Gaga had plans to launch a joint tour together. Fame Kills: Starring Lady Gaga and Kanye West was confirmed in September 2009 as a concert tour that West and Gaga would co-headline. In the aftermath of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, West made a public statement that he would take a break from the music industry following the media and public reaction to his outburst during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for winning the VMA for Best Female Video. Nevertheless, the complete schedule for the Fame Kills tour was released, with the tour set to begin on November 10, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly afterwards, the tour was officially canceled without any explanation. Gaga addressed the situation at Billboard's annual Women in Music luncheon where she cited creative differences as the reason for the tour's cancellation. In an interview she stated, "Kanye is going to take a break, but the good news is, I am not." After ensuring the public that she would be embarking on a solo tour in lieu of the defunct Fame Kills tour, Gaga officially announced The Monster Ball Tour on October 15, 2009. The tour had originally been planned to debut in London in early 2010, but will now kick off on November 27, 2009 in Montreal, QC. Rapper Kid Cudi and singer Jason DeRulo were confirmed as the supporting act for the tour. While Kid Cudi is confirmed to be supporting Gaga from the beginning of the tour, DeRulo will join the tour beginning on December 28, 2009. The official poster for the tour features Gaga in her signature Versace 676 sunglasses and what she has dubbed "The Orbit", which she first wore on the October 3, 2009 edition of Saturday Night Live. The contraption was designed by Nasir Mazhar in collaboration with Gaga's own creative production company, Haus of Gaga. Development In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gaga explained that she wanted to put together an expensive looking, beautiful show which would be affordable by her fans. She explained that the tour is a "pop-electro opera" because the theatrics and the story elements interwoven in the tour are played like an opera. According to her the design of the show is innovative and forward in terms of creativeness. Gaga wanted to change the shape of the stage and designed one with Haus of Gaga that is "essentially a frame with forced perspective, and the frame is put inside the stage." Gaga explained,The theme of the show is evolution. According to Gaga, the songs on The Fame Monster represents the personal demons that she had faced. Hence while developing the record Gaga spoke about original sin and demons inside human beings. She said, "So we talked about growth, and that led us into this kind of scientific space, and we started talking about evolution and the evolution of humanity and how we begin as one thing, and we become another." This theme of monsters and evolution is supposed to play a part in the fashion for the tour, which according to Gaga is "another level from where we were with the Fame Ball. ... It's going to be a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you've ever been to." Although Gaga stated that she was inspired by the things her and Kanye were doing with the Fame Kills tour, she concluded, "...I made a decision based on integrity not to use any of the things that we had designed together." Later, she agreed that it was "the great lost tour". On an interview with Alexa Young, Lady Gaga stated that the beginning of the show will start with her "appearing out of an egg", as her concert will be about "Evolution" and how she has changed during her year with ''The Fame''. Revamped Monster Ball in 2010 Near the end of the U.S. leg of the tour, Lady Gaga said on twitter : monsterball is amazing,enjoy while u can. im already redesigning it for 2010, the haus tells me there's hospitals who accept people like me (Dec. 19) Gaga told MTV News on Saturday, hours before her Monster Ball stop in San Diego. :"The re-vamping of the Monster Ball Tour is just something feel she has to do, especially since the current version of the tour came together at the very last second. "It's kind of funny because, after Kanye and I split up for this tour, I was really unsure if I could get a show together in time for my fans," "But I didn't want to disappoint them and not tour over Christmas, and I had a new record coming out, so ... what's exciting about this show is that I was able to put together something that, in truth, I never would have done if I had a longer amount of time." "So, I put together a show that is so perfectly an avant-garde-performance-art-fashion installation, put in a blender and vomited on as a pop show. It's kind of this amazing theme of evolution, but it's in a garage, and me and all my friends are kind of exploring the music." "But it's a very vacuous space. It's a box, it's a runway, and we have to transform that space to feel like eight different acts throughout the entire show. But for the next version of the Monster Ball, which is going to be in February when I begin in the U.K. with my arena tour, I'm throwing out the stage. My team thinks I'm completely psychotic. But I don't fucking care what they think." Gaga wouldn't divulge too many secrets of the new Monster Ball, but she did say that Danish pop act Alphabeat will serve as the opening act. And she also hinted that her fans will be in for a very big show, in just about every conceivable way. "Well, just to give you an idea, the stage is about four times the size of the one we're on now and conceptually, it's completely different." "One thing that has been lost over the past 10-15 years, in pop music, is the idea of showbiz. And this is definitely going to bring that back." The new show will be like a broadway production. GaGa says, "I play all of my music but it's a story. And the story is that me and my friends are in NY and we are going to The Monster Ball, but we get lost. Our car breaks down and we are having trouble getting there & I tell everyone, 'When you come to the Monster Ball it will set you free & all of the things that you don't like about yourself won't matter anymore.' And, they start to lose faith in me. So, it's got a kind of Wizard of Oz inspiration behind it. And it's this really amazing sort of glam, drug addict opera." Opening acts *Kid Cudi (Nov. 27 to Dec. 14 only) *Jason Derülo *Alphabeat (United Kingdom and Ireland) *Semi Precious Weapons Set list :The show is subject to change, the set list reflect only the last one played. For other variations, see the individual concert page. North American Setlist #'Jumping Film' (Intro) (contains elements of "Finally 2008") #Dance in the Dark #Just Dance #'Puke Film' (Desert) (contains elements of "Tears in the Rain") #LoveGame #Alejandro #'Raven Film' (Forest) (contains elements of "Girls" and a vocal sample of "Money Honey") #Monster #So Happy I Could Die (Nov. 27 - Jan. 9 only) #Teeth #Speechless #Poker Face (Acoustic) and Make Her Say (Performed with KiD CuDi until the 14. Dec) #'Tank Girl Film' (Egypt) (contains elements of "Dirty Freak" and a vocal sample of "Beautiful, Dirty,Rich") #Fashion (Nov. 27 - Dec. 9 only) #The Fame (contains elements of "Ghosts N Stuff") #Money Honey #Beautiful, Dirty, Rich (contains elements of "Dirty Freak") #'Antler Film' (City) (contains elements of "Fancy Footwork" and "Shook One Pt. II") #Boys Boys Boys #Paper Gangsta (Nov. 27 - Jan. 9 only) #Poker Face #'Monster Film' (Manifesto of Little Monsters) #Paparazzi #Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) (Encore) #Bad Romance (Encore) #'Tattoo Film' (Opera - Outro) *a further breakdown of the setlist may be viewed here. Additional notes *''LoveGame'' end with a small part of the Chew Fu Remix of the song featuring Marilyn Manson. *Since December 2, Tank Girl Film is followed by an live instrumental leading to Fashion (until December 11) or The Fame. *A remix of Beautiful, Dirty, Rich was played until December 19. *Since December 21, The Fame / Money Honey / Beautiful, Dirty, Rich are played with no pause between them. *''Paper Gangsta'' is performed with a Auto-Tuned microphone, only the concert in Montreal did not feature this. *The Monster Film was first shown on November 29 in Ottawa. Before that, the "Antler Film" was played. *Since November 29, the "Antler Fim" play after "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" before "Boys Boys Boys" *''Paparazzi'' (Fernando Garibay's version) was played on December 2. European Setlist #Dance In the Dark #Just Dance #Beautiful, Dirty, Rich #Vanity #The Fame #Love Game #Boys Boys Boys Films The Gun Film (Unofficial name) This interlude displayed Lady Gaga naked inside a gun and a city being built (rising) with a couple of Gagas with her body and a head of crow on top of some of the buildings. The music sampled the same song as the Raven Film (Girls). The Gun Interlude was used in Montreal only. Fan submission In a unique step, Lady Gaga, pioneering image-maker Nick Knight and fashion filmmaker Ruth Hogben launch a one-off collaborative project, inviting the Gaga's fans to submit their own video imagery for inclusion in her 2009-2010 World Tour 'The Monster Ball'. The inspiration is sharp, simple and brutal: the Apocalypse, symbolic of both destruction and rebirth. Lady Gaga, Nick Knight and Ruth Hobgen will select video imagery from the submissions, and the videos will then be spliced together and reinvented as exclusive imagery, played alongside Lady Gaga's spectacular live performances across the globe. In line with new contributions, video pieces will be constantly re-edited and engineered as new submissions are received throughout the tour's 44-date marathon run, in a constant creative renewal. Personnel *Tour Promoter (s): LiveNation, AEG Live *Tour Sponsor (s): Virgin Mobile USA, M.A.C Cosmetics *Creative Director (s): Matthew "Dada" Williams, Willo Perron *Choreographer: Laurie-Ann Gibson *Assistant Choreographer: Richie Jackson 'First version' (2009-2010) *Musical Director: Jeff Bhasker *Set Design: Es Devlin *Set built: Tait Towers *Costume Design: Haus of GaGa with Franc Fernandez, Gary Card, Maison Martin Margiela, Miguel Villalobos, Oscar O Lima, Zaldy Goco *The Orbit by Nasir Mazhar and Haus of GaGa 'Second version (2010)' *Musical Director: Joe "Flip" Wilson *Set Design: Roy Bennett *Set built: Tait Towers Band *Dancers: Michael Silas, Ian McKenzie, Asiel Hardison, Mark Kanemura, Jeremy Hudson, Graham Breitenstein, Montana Efaw, Sloan Taylor-Rabinor, Amanda Balen, Molly d'Amour 'First version' (2009-2010) *Guitar: Adam Smirnoff *Drums: Charles Haynes *Keyboards: Jeff Bhasker *Keytar: Lady Gaga (in "Dance in the Dark") 'Second version (2010)' *Keyboards: Brockett Parsons *Electric Violin: Judy Kang *Drums: George "Spanky" McCurdy *Bass: Lanar “Kern” Brantley *Guitar: Ricky Tillo, Kareem Devlin *Harp: Rashida Jolley *Background Vocals: Charity Davis, Ameera Perkins, Lenesha Randolph, Posh! The Prince Crew *Make Up: Sarah Nicole Tanno 'First version' (2009-2010) *Concert video design: Nick Knight, Ruth Hogben *Lighting Design: Willie Williams *Lighting Director: Ethan Weber 'Second version (2010)' *Concert video design (Tour visuals): Nick Knight, Kevin Stenning (Rapido3D), BURSTvisual *Set Sculptures: Nick Knight and Kevin Stenning (Rapido3D) Category:Concert tour